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Has your degree at La Trobe prepared you well for the workplace?

One of the key things that came out of studying an engineering degree is the ability to gather a large amount of information, process it, order it logically & then come to a conclusion/solution. Major capital expenditure projects are very solution oriented & they want people who can work with a team to find a solution to a problem. This skill, which was developed through the coursework has been one of the most valuable throughout my working career as an engineer.

Another highly valuable skill is working is groups with various cultural backgrounds. Most workplaces have a high level of cultural variability & your company’s client groups may be located anywhere. Having the experience of working with people from different upbringings has served me well in my career.

Tell us a little about your work history

The vast majority of my work has been in major capital expenditure projects. I have the type of personality that enjoys the significant challenges that are involved in these types of ventures; where risks are calculated & mitigated, failure is not an option & time frames & resources are ALWAYS short. I always preferred a job where I worked as a part of a team that work towards a specific goal and end point; hence projects are where my particular skill sets shine.

I have worked both in the city and remotely (by that I mean the remote Victoria & WA region) on a variety of construction projects. To be completely open, I would say the technical skills learnt in uni were of limited use in the workplace as I wasn’t employed as an electronics engineer, however other skills learned in uni had a significant contribution to progression through my career. The projects have varied from commercial; building a hospital, kitchen, housing village & telecommunications towers, to resources; iron ore, minerals, water, oil & gas. They have ranged from small projects; approx $10m that lasted 6 months, to multi-billion dollar projects that lasted several years. Most of the time I have been brought in to ‘trouble shoot’ a particular part of a project; i.e. late, cost overruns, unhappy clients, etc. & have worked closely with small teams to recover & deliver the ‘orphaned’ project.

I have worked my way up from a beginner on site to managing international teams & can say that managing people is far more challenging & ultimately more rewarding than any technical issue that I’ve had to solve.

What were your career highlights thus far?

• Getting my first project engineer role – I had no construction background and had studied a little of the project management masters & managed to score a great job as the onsite project engineer. I knew NOTHING about construction but the wonderful team I worked with shared their substantial knowledge and I left that job with an excellent grounding for future large projects.
• Being able to travel on my rostered days off when I worked remotely – I worked a 21 day on 7 day off shift and this allowed me to satisfy my itchy feet. It’s amazing how much you can see in 5 days. I went to Bangkok, New Zealand, South Africa, Tokyo, Tasmania & then on my extended break I travelled across the USA, through Europe & to South America and once spent New Years in Antarctica.
• Being offered the chance to take on the recovery of the engineering for a multi billion dollar gas pipeline job where the contractor was based in Italy & the project was several months behind and in disarray. That was a HUGE challenge & one where I learnt A LOT.

What are things you enjoy most about your job?

Working with a team to deliver a project – there are some amazing & some not-so-amazing people out there & being part of a team that delivers what has been promised – that feels awesome. Seeing a difference from when I walked into the job to when it is complete – I may not have handled the tools or done any physical work, but I can still say ‘I helped build that’.

Besides your career, where has life taken you since graduation:

As you may have read above, my life choices have led me around the world. I have travelled, both for fun and work. Having a degree, some life experiences & being open to the opportunities life presents along the way has opened doors for me in all sorts of random and amazing places.

What advice can you offer to current students?

I know that this is annoying to hear, but get good grades if you can. Getting 1st class honours opened doors for me in the early stages of my career. Make sure you can demonstrate team work – either in class or outside. Workplaces consist of teams for most jobs. If you can work well as a team member that will help you tremendously. All the way through your career learn from experienced people. A lot of the achievements I’ve been a part of has been through learning from those who have been in the game a long time. Learn to read people, assess those that you work well with and then learn as much as you can from them.

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